Can UKIP triumph at general election after European success? – King’s Lynn shoppers give their verdict

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Anti-EU party UKIP netted a vast majority of West Norfolk votes in the European election and believes success will follow at next year’s general election.

We took to the streets of Lynn in search of the people who voted UKIP to ask them if their support would be enduring.

William Perrin, 70, of Great Massingham, is a UKIP supporter and plans to vote for them in the general election.

He said: “It is all about immigration for me. People who live here can’t get a house yet we have immigrants coming in and receiving support.”

Alice Eastwood, 58, of Sutton Bridge, said: “If the other parties don’t buck their ideas up, my vote will go to UKIP. We have got to control the numbers of people coming into this country. There are only so many houses, so many jobs and so much welfare.”

Gill Gibbons, 62, of Hipkin Road, Downham, has been a Conservative supporter all her life but did not feel she could offer her backing to any party at the European elections.

She said: “The amount of immigration we have is a concern, but there is good and bad in it. Without immigrants, in hospitals there would be no staff.”

Anne Massen, 60, of Trafalgar Road, Downham, switched her lifelong Conservative vote to Labour in the European elections, but is also unsure any party deserves her support.

She said: “If you put all the candidates in a bag and shook it, I don’t think one good one would come out.

“Immigration is a big issue. In New Zealand they have much stricter rules on who can live there and we need to do the same. We need to look after British people first.”

Harry Brien, 66, of School Road, Tilney St Lawrence, did not and will not vote UKIP and does not believe supporters will back the party in the general election.

He said: “I think UKIP votes were argumentative votes mainly to do with immigration. Perhaps it will make the other parties think. UKIP wouldn’t be any good for Britain. It would be too easy for the far-right to infiltrate it.”